It seems like Advent flew by this year, which I'm sure I say every year but it's still true. We had Thanksgiving dinner, I blinked, and all of a sudden I was baking sugar cookies for Saint Nicholas and trimming the tree on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely time in those fast flying weeks. We had lots of visitors, made Christmas cards, fit in all of our traditions, and even tried our hands at making pomanders which are currently drying out in the garage--hopefully. Next year maybe we can do them in time to actually have them dried in time for Christmas. I did manage to finally dry orange slices in the oven without burning them which was very satisfying. With as many brown orange slices as I have produced these last several years, it might even be considered a Christmas miracle :)
Christmas morning came early with the first children popping their darling tousled heads into our bedroom at four am. If anything could really be considered darling at such an unseemly hour. I'm inclined to think not, but you'd have to ask Chris for certain because I was unaware of the festive beginnings until around five-thirty after the coffee had already been brewed and the oven preheated. That man of mine is certainly a keeper.
We did stockings and presents and french toast and went to mass and then the kids spent the rest of the day playing outside--jumping on the trampoline and waiting for daddy to get the new zip line set up. After getting a brisket into the oven, I decided to ignore the mess of ribbons and paper scraps and general Christmas morning detritus and sit down with one of my new books until the little ones woke up from their naps. I managed to read two whole pages before I heard the delightful cries of an over-sugared fourteen month old calling me back to my actual current life. Now that he's officially down for the evening, I think my book is calling me back up to my bed where maybe I can get in another two pages before I fall asleep.
I hope you all had a lovely day and continue to celebrate Christmas all season long! We're just warming up over here!
PS Henry likes his shellacked alligator head way more than his face is letting on in that picture :)